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Why has humankind always had some kind of belief in a power greater than themselves---even if it were animistic or shamanistic.

You don't have to posit the actual existence of a supernatural being to explain that. Someone else made a similar assertion recently, and here was my response:

"[the feeling] that there is some God, is naturally inborn in all, and is fixed deep within, as it were in the very marrow. . . . From this we conclude that it is not a doctrine that must first be learned in school, but one of which each of us is master from his mother's womb and which nature itself permits no man to forget."
Ponder this classic observation:
"Primates often have trouble imagining a universe not run by an angry alpha male" -- Anon
That alone could be the "explanation" for the instinct to seek someone to obey/follow "which nature itself permits no man to forget" as you put it. It certainly fits in a great number of ways.
It also explains why my dog worships me, and my cat doesn't. Creatures which have evolved a social structure revolving around an alpha-male (like dogs, as well as humans and other primates) will be "hardwired", instinctually, to expect and want a "ruler" to whom they give their allegiance and turn to for protection and permission.
Similarly, Arthur C. Clarke has suggested that man looks for a god because of the instincts which help us survive as a species having a long childhood. To keep kids from wandering off on their own too soon and getting eaten by the tigers beyond the safety of the tribe (and so on), humans, primates, and other animals with a long nurturing time have instincts which instill in the young feelings involving turning to your parents for protection and sustenance, looking up to them for guidance on how to live, fear of straying too far from them and being alone, respect for their position of power over you, etc. etc. etc. After growing up and/or leaving home, however, these instincts leave a yearning to continue to look up to some more powerful, protective nurturer/rule-giver. And a belief in a watching-over-me deity would fulfill this need for some people. Is it mere coincidence that so many gods are described in terms which are variations of "heavenly father", "our father who art in heaven", "god the father", etc.?
Further support for this potential explanation is seen in the results of studies such as: Vitz, P.C. (1999), "Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism". Vitz found that atheists tend more often than theists to have grown up with absent fathers (through death, divorce, etc.) or poor relationships with their fathers. If theism is an outgrowth of the childhood desire to have a parent to look up to and feel protected/guided by, then Vitz's findings make sense.
So Plantinga's simplistic argument -- which boils down to, "if we have a yearning for something greater than ourselves, then something greater than ourselves must necessarily exist", really doesn't hold water. There are many reasons why humans would have such a yearning entirely apart from Platinga's one possible explanation. His (and your) "that *must* be it!" mindset is not just simplistic, it's logically incorrect.

Well, I think it's worth saying that there obviously are, always have been, and always will be powers greater than ourselves. The forces that make up the universe, whatever you believe they are, are unarguably wildly beyond our control.

Mankind has always wanted to understand these, partially because of curiosity and partially because understanding them represents at least some power to deal with them. Humans also have a tendency to personify things. Combine these two impulses and what do you get?

Just beyond whatever the limitations of are knowledge are, there be monsters.

Thank you for that. Very interesting.

It also explains why my dog worships me, and my cat doesn't.

If cats evolved into an intelligent species, it would be interesting to see what religion they would come up with. (I'm pretty sure they'd have to come up with something, if only as an attempt at explanation for how everything got to be.)